I was never a teacher who used textbooks in class. Maybe, and I don't want to speak for everyone, it was the... modern and appealing design (hello, 1992 WordArt and models straight off the set of Barney)? It could’ve also been the complete void of engaging materials or the fact that they were usually just 500 pages of painstaking drills? Needless to say, it just wasn’t for me.
My first philosophy has always been to lead heart first in everything I did in the classroom. To focus on the needs of the whole-child and to prioritize connection, creativity and curiosity first and curriculum would fit organically into the spaces between.
My second? That I wouldn’t be the teacher I wanted to be or the teacher my students needed unless I was excited about the material I was about to teach.
Because of that, I created my own from the getgo and I’m here today to walk you through my first Mindfulness Unit to support your social emotional learning counseling or teaching curriculum.
I can promise you that this is a student-led, immersive way to help students find beauty in a busy world by using their 5 senses to instil a sense of gratitude and resilience.
Creation
Art and Science are my absolute favorite ways of making more abstract concepts concrete for our youngest learners. In this unit, your elementary students or counseling groups will engage in hands-on mini Science experiments and create crafts to...
Celebrate their strengths
Using a backpack, they will create a display that shows that they are packed with interests. This will help them establish a strong sense of self, as well as indirectly connect them with other students who may share similar hobbies.
Showcase their feelings
Normalizing big emotions is everything when it comes to developing healthy self-care habits like getting in tune with our body's cues and leaning on others when we get overwhelmed. This jar of emotions lets students choose their focus emojis to reveal what makes them feel what underneath.
Hone in on coping skills
After having built a basic emotional vocabulary, students will now get to explore age-appropriate outlets to support regulation through their
copecake activity. You can send these home or even keep one in the classroom and laminate to use as part of your
calm down corner.
Gush about what they're grateful for
The final craftivity involves "building" a class fridge and identifying what it is we are most grateful in our lives at school and home.
Connection
Each lesson gives students the opportunity to do what they do best and arguably, what they need most- to organically communicate and connect. Both the minds-on and consolidation activities include opportunities to reflect and to share. This includes a binder ring of mindfulness-themed exit ticket prompts to organize your community circles. Each student will take a turn rolling the dice and then responding to the Would You Rather, movement, or discussion prompt that complements the topic from that day.
Grounding
Unlike the archaic textbook-style teaching methods, we couldn't build a mindfulness program without giving student the opportunity to actually experience elements first hand. In this unit, students get to sort, stretch, visualize and breathe to help deepen an understanding of what mindfulness actually looks, sounds and feels like.
Click below to access the full 8-lesson unit!
